New to Java....need some advice for a quick prototype program

[Younger Dryas]

New to Java....need some advice for a quick prototype program

Using JAVA, I want to write a program to run under windowsXP,
which will constantly monitor my internet broadband connection,
capture certain messages (maybe instant messaging), and write
those messages to a file. Simultaneously I will want to have read
access to that file. I'm hoping this all could be some kind of
background process thing, if that's possible.

So..say, on a one to ten scale, are these really hard things to do in
JAVA, will they take hundreds of lines of code, or is this mostly just
calls to some API's, libraries, or whatever. I've gone through dozens
of books at Barnes and Noble but havn't seen these particular issues of
continous monitoring of internet messages and the filtering of them off
to some file approached even indirectly. It is very possible that I didn't
know how to look them up properly in the indexes due to my unfamiliarity
with JAVA terminology.

fyi (I'm newly studying JAVA, but have significant, though rather dusty
Unix scripting experience and 'C' skills".

Thank you in advance for any in information.
..
..

 

[Tony Morris]

New to Java....need some advice for a quick prototype program

Using JAVA, I want to write a program to run under windowsXP,
which will constantly monitor my internet broadband connection,
capture certain messages (maybe instant messaging), and write
those messages to a file. Simultaneously I will want to have read
access to that file. I'm hoping this all could be some kind of
background process thing, if that's possible.

So..say, on a one to ten scale, are these really hard things to do in
JAVA, will they take hundreds of lines of code, or is this mostly just
calls to some API's, libraries, or whatever. I've gone through dozens
of books at Barnes and Noble but havn't seen these particular issues of
continous monitoring of internet messages and the filtering of them off
to some file approached even indirectly. It is very possible that I didn't
know how to look them up properly in the indexes due to my unfamiliarity
with JAVA terminology.

fyi (I'm newly studying JAVA, but have significant, though rather dusty
Unix scripting experience and 'C' skills".

Thank you in advance for any in information.
.
.

JAVA [sic] is not an acronym, but it is a proper noun, thus, it is referred
to as "Java".

To perform tasks regarding network interface drivers requires the use of
native languages, such as C or C++.
It is unclear if you want to monitor traffic as "low-level" as a network
interface or on a particular connection, such as a TCP port. If you mean the
latter, then yes, it is possible, and quite simple - in fact, I have done it
myself (written a reverse proxy server that exposes APIs/callbacks to allow
filtering/monitoring of traffic).

--
Tony Morris
(BInfTech, Cert 3 I.T.)
Software Engineer
IBM Australia - Tivoli Security Software
(2003 VTR1000F)
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform (1.4)
Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform

 

[Sudsy]

New to Java....need some advice for a quick prototype program

Using JAVA, I want to write a program to run under windowsXP,
which will constantly monitor my internet broadband connection,
capture certain messages (maybe instant messaging), and write
those messages to a file. Simultaneously I will want to have read
access to that file. I'm hoping this all could be some kind of
background process thing, if that's possible.

<snip>

So you want to inject a listener into the protocol stack, determine
message format, and log those of interest? That is one HUGE task!
And no, I don't think Java is an appropriate vehicle. You're almost
down to the device driver level with these requirements...
You probably couldn't install a program like that without supervisor
privs anyway. So from the security and portability prespectives
alone you rule out the use of Java.

 

[Chris Smith]

Using JAVA, I want to write a program to run under windowsXP,
which will constantly monitor my internet broadband connection,
capture certain messages (maybe instant messaging), and write
those messages to a file. Simultaneously I will want to have read
access to that file. I'm hoping this all could be some kind of
background process thing, if that's possible.

So..say, on a one to ten scale, are these really hard things to do in
JAVA,

11. Unless you're willing to mix Java code with native code; then it's
definitely possible, and writing the code to analyze the results of the
network snooping and write them to a file shouldn't be difficult.

--
www.designacourse.com
The Easiest Way to Train Anyone... Anywhere.

Chris Smith - Lead Software Developer/Technical Trainer
MindIQ Corporation

 

[Younger Dryas]

Tony... thank you very much for your reply below. To clear up what
I was not very clear about, I would be using a broadband internet
connection, and it will be bringing messages to me and they will
probably
be in some instant messaging format - most likely something like
MSN or Yahoo instant messaging, but someday it could very well be a
privatly
contracted instant messaging service, or wired SMS, or maybe it could
be done with just a constant connection to a streaming thing, like the
way music is sometimes done over the internet, but this would be more
occasional bursts of data messsages. Now, I think this is just TCP/IP
stuff. The ultimate purpose is not to set up person to person instant
messaging but more like for instantly "broadcasting" out to an
audience of N subscribers of some very time dependent information
(with such messages having exactly the same format for every
"subscriber) which is why I want the client application to always be
listening. Perhaps a good comparison is like when people get stock
quote
tickers running on the bottom of their screen. Likely I would
contract other
folks to take care of the server end stuff, but for now I am just
trying to
prototype this client end, knowing that it might ultimately be
rewritten by
more seriously skilled programmers, maybe even in some other language.
If you
checked out the thread on this question, one replyer thought this
would be a huge task, but I liked the sound of your answer much better
So, do you
think I am on the right track prototyping with Java? Do you think
the
"streaming data approach" is at all reasonable? Thanks again for
your
help.

New to Java....need some advice for a quick prototype program

Using JAVA, I want to write a program to run under windowsXP,
which will constantly monitor my internet broadband connection,
capture certain messages (maybe instant messaging), and write
those messages to a file. Simultaneously I will want to have read
access to that file. I'm hoping this all could be some kind of
background process thing, if that's possible.

So..say, on a one to ten scale, are these really hard things to do in
JAVA, will they take hundreds of lines of code, or is this mostly just
calls to some API's, libraries, or whatever. I've gone through dozens
of books at Barnes and Noble but havn't seen these particular issues of
continous monitoring of internet messages and the filtering of them off
to some file approached even indirectly. It is very possible that I didn't
know how to look them up properly in the indexes due to my unfamiliarity
with JAVA terminology.

fyi (I'm newly studying JAVA, but have significant, though rather dusty
Unix scripting experience and 'C' skills".

Thank you in advance for any in information.
.
.

JAVA [sic] is not an acronym, but it is a proper noun, thus, it is referred
to as "Java".

To perform tasks regarding network interface drivers requires the use of
native languages, such as C or C++.
It is unclear if you want to monitor traffic as "low-level" as a network
interface or on a particular connection, such as a TCP port. If you mean the
latter, then yes, it is possible, and quite simple - in fact, I have done it
myself (written a reverse proxy server that exposes APIs/callbacks to allow
filtering/monitoring of traffic).